New Blood by April Quinn

Prologue

Two shadows moved through the dark towards the apartment building just off campus of the local university. They were hungry and looking to feed; and this place was like a buffet to them. Young adults, most of them asleep in their beds, unknowing of the danger that approached.
They slipped inside with ease and began wondering the halls, silent predators looking for choice prey. Their minds touching all those in the apartments they passed, deciding who would be cursed with their touch this night.
Nikolai paused at one door finally; intrigued by the mind he had touched within. He lifted a hand and let it touch the door lightly, as if he could touch the mortal within as easily. Clippings of cute male celebrities smiled up at him as he stood there staring at the door. There was something about her. He felt compelled to enter this particular room tonight.
Her dreams were nothing special, the heavily romantic dreams of a girl her age. Many he had touched this night had dreams of a similar sort. So why her?
He turned his head towards his friend and nodded towards the door, a sign that he chose this one. At the inclination of his head, long black hair fell in a silk curtain across the side of his face. He tossed it back before looking at the door again. The name tag on it said Marie Smith.
With barely a thought, they turned into mist and slipped inside the apartment. Nikolai knew instantly which direction the bedroom was in, gliding intently in that direction. His friend, Lucian, followed a bit slower. He knew only one woman lay within this apartment, and Nikolai for whatever reason had claimed her as his own this night. His friend would have to go find another apartment with another woman to feed upon.
Nikolai could smell her sweet scent everywhere. It made the hunger stir even more. The fact that they were even feeding on living humans showed how severe their hunger was eating at them this night. They normally fed on animal blood or bags stolen from a blood bank. But once in awhile, they needed to feed on something fresh.
He stood by the bed once in her room, looking down at its sleeping occupant. Her skin was so pale, nearly glowing in the moonlight streaming in from the window, that one might think she was another of his people. But he knew differently. Dark hair fell wildly around her head like a dark halo. He reached out to brush a stray lock from her face so that he could gaze upon its loveliness more fully. Long, thick lashes curled against her high cheekbones as she slept peacefully.
As he touched her skin, a shock went through his body and he had a sort of vision for an instant. It was the woman in the bed. She was lying beneath him, but with long waves of blonde hair falling around her shoulders and wild upon the pillow beneath her. She was looking up at him with wide, slightly slanted eyes of the lightest blue. They glowed with pure love and pure lust, only for him as he drove into her. Her full red lips were parted as she sighed with pleasure for him.
He shook the vision away. What had this been? Why had she looked so different? And he had been making love to her. It confirmed the odd feelings he had sensed in himself since he first came upon her mind. She was his bloodmate. His other half. The blood lust was temporarily forgotten as his heart swelled with the need to reenact the vision with her and taste her sweet blood. Make her his. Forever.
He heard Lucian move into the room and finally tore his eyes away from her to look at his friend. Lucian was giving him a questioning look.
"She is my bloodmate," Nikolai said slowly, with wonder colouring his dark voice. "I have found her..." He looked back down at her and whispered her name softly, "Marie Smith." He liked the feel of it on his tongue. He reached out again and stroked her cheek.
He looked up as Lucian spoke softly to him. "I am glad for you, friend. I shall leave you with her, then, and go to find my own feast... who knows, maybe I shall find my own bloodmate among all these beautiful ladies." He chuckled and then seemed to disappear into the shadows.
When Nikolai looked back down he gave a start. The angel of moonlight's eyes were open and staring at the spot that Lucian had disappeared from. And apparently her hair wasn't the only thing that was different. She had steel grey eyes that currently were wide in shock.
He could not wipe her mind clean. He couldn't. She was his bloodmate and he would have to make her understand that.